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Playing it Safe
When COVID-19 pushed Jeremy Couture and his partner Mark away from their careers in Florida, they never imagined they’d end up owning a historic mansion in Kentucky’s bourbon country. Yet there they were in 2021, first-time innkeepers of the Inn at Woodhaven, a stunning 1853 Gothic Revival property with eight unique guest rooms. “We figured the best way to do it would be to find a way to buy our own hotel and then nobody could tell us we weren’t qualified to run it,” Jeremy recalls with a laugh. But beneath this confidence lay a common challenge for new hoteliers: how to price their rooms in a market they were still getting to know.
For the first two and a half years, Jeremy took a conservative approach to pricing. “I was very conservative with setting my own rates,” he explains. “We were very new to this business and new to this market.” The Inn achieved high occupancy rates—over 90% during peak season—but Jeremy suspected they were leaving revenue on the table.
Embracing Innovation
When Jeremy heard about TakeUp through his marketing partner in late 2023, something resonated. “I tend to be a bit of a risk taker with business stuff,” he says. Unlike many innkeepers who might hesitate to hand pricing decisions over to AI, Jeremy saw an opportunity to solve his occupancy puzzle. Four months into using TakeUp, the results exceeded expectations. The AI system discovered price points Jeremy never would have attempted—and guests were happily booking at these rates. “Sometimes I’m surprised that we get bookings at the rate that it has put,” Jeremy admits, “but we do, so it knows better than me.”
Each month brought increasing returns, with the fourth month quadrupling the system’s monthly cost in additional revenue.
Freedom to Focus
Perhaps the most meaningful change hasn’t been in the numbers at all—it’s been in how Jeremy spends his time. Freed from constant rate monitoring and second-guessing, he’s been able to focus on enhancing the guest experience. The Inn is currently installing a bourbon tasting room in the basement and adding a hot tub to their new deck, investments made possible by both the additional revenue and the mental space gained from not worrying about pricing.
“Now I can just focus on the other parts of the business that I enjoy doing, or I’m good at,”
Jeremy says. “It has saved me a lot of time and a lot of brainstorming.”
Looking Forward
As the Inn approaches its first peak season with TakeUp, Jeremy maintains the adventurous spirit that led him to try the system in the first place. “Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s bad,” he reflects. “This has been one of maybe five or six different things that I’ve done that are really outside the box for most people and all five or six of those things have really paid off.” For other innkeepers considering the leap to AI-driven pricing, Jeremy’s advice is straightforward:
“Give it a shot. You really don’t have anything to lose... and don’t be afraid to think outside the box when opportunities come up.”
